Bankruptcy court decision threatens Gutierrez deal to buy BRMC property
Published on November 3rd, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - After months of negotiation, the Boston Regional Medical Center deal may collapse.
Although U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved sale of the 42-acre campus to the Burlington-based Gutierrez Company, approval was made subject to the rights of the New England Memorial Church sitting on the property.
The Woodland Road hospital run by the Southern New England Conference of the Seventh-day Adventists went bankrupt in February 1999, dragging an Adventist church and school on the property along for the trip to bankruptcy court.
The church and school both claimed the right to stay on the property. On Oct. 29 a jury trial in U.S. Bankruptcy Court decided the church had a "prescriptive easement" and could stay, but the school had to go.
Ted Doyle, a spokesperson for Gutierrez, said the company has yet to decide what action to take.
The Gutierrez offer was contingent on the property being free of any other tenants. But Gutierrez could waive this right.
"We have to take some time to see how, if at all, this impacts the project," Doyle said. "The church is right in the middle of the property."
Ethan Jeffery of Hanify and King, attorneys for the creditors, said his clients must now "wait and see."
Several things could happen next: Gutierrez or the hospital creditors could appeal the court's decision allowing the church to stay; the school could appeal the court's decision instructing it to go; a settlement could be reached (rumors have circulated that an offer made by Gutierrez to the church and school before the jury trial was rejected); or Gutierrez could withdraw its offer.
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